Joel caught her, his smile wide. “Hey there, pretty lady. Guess you owe me one.”
Polly whacked his chest. “Put me down.”
“Where’s my thank-you kiss?”
Another shove, and Joel laughed quietly before setting her on her feet.
“We left my old bedroom window open,” Maggie said, glancing up.
Ethan looked at Joel, who stepped over to him, interlaced his fingers and kneeled. Ethan backed up before taking three fast steps forward, leaping onto Joel’s hands and getting a boost. He grabbed the edge of the roof and pulled himself the rest of the way up. With quick and quiet steps, he crossed to the window.Two steps back and he ran and jumped, grabbing the ledge of the window. He found a small footing to step on, then dragged the window down.
It would be unlocked, but it was the best he could do.
When he returned to the ledge, he crouched then dropped to the ground, the thump of his feet hitting concrete quiet.
Polly’s mouth opened. “Wow. That was like watching an episode of Jack Reacher.”
“Impressed?” Joel asked with a grin.
“Not by you. All you did was give him a boost.”
“Guess that makes me the muscle.”
She wrinkled her nose.
Ethan slid an arm around Maggie’s waist, and they hurried back to the road.
“What were you doing in there?” Ethan asked when they reached his truck parked down the street. Polly’s was across the road from the house, so this conversation was safer at his.
Maggie shot a glance toward her friend.
Polly nodded. “You should tell him.”
Ethan’s muscles locked. “Tell me what?”
“My bodywash and toothpaste went missing,” she said quietly.
He frowned. “What?”
“And the reason I left LA is because similar things happened there. I’d get back from work trips to find stuff out of place. My earrings went missing. Unfamiliar scents would be lingering in my house.”
Ethan shared a look with Joel, his friend’s usual smile nowhere to be seen.
“There were other things too,” Polly added. “She got home from a weeklong trip to a wet loofah and a freshly burned candle.”
What the fuck? “And you thought it was Lilith?”
“That was me,” Polly said. “I had a key to Maggie’s apartment go missing at Bloom. Lilith was in the café the day it disappeared.”
“But so were other people,” Maggie added.
“You need to move in with me.” The words dropped from his mouth unexpectedly, but they didn’t feel wrong.
Maggie’s eyes bulged. “What? No.”
“Why not? You can’t stay where you are.”
“I’m not in the apartment anymore. I moved into Polly’s house. I’ll be fine.”
